1 Honey: why it is made, how it is made, extracted and bottled. Tasting goes with it if you have a variety. Brief description of the job of beekeeper as you assemble a hive & pass round combs; wear bee-suit, take smoker, walk in with it lit (if that doesn't wake them up the alarms will).
2 Pollination: more important than honey. What pollinators do, why they are important: one third of food on shelf, almond farms, Chinese paint-brush pollination.
3 Bees dying out? The accurate picture - many of 270 UK species in trouble due to loss of habitat, honeybees doing well (9k members 10 years ago, 25k now). Loss of habitat due to more people = more housing, food, shopping and such pointless toot, and to industrial farming driven by supermarkets desire to profit from cheap food; food not cheap long-term because the NHS will pick up the bill (U3As use and care about the NHS).
4 What can they do to help? Buy for taste, buy less, buy local. Support British beekeepers and reject cleansed honey imports (80-odd % imported). Daily Mail Brexiters will love you. Ask them to watch out for Asian hornet: brief story, give out free sheets (available from
nonnativespecies.org). Many U3As will be observant gardeners.
5 Q&A will probably include baloney questions about dramatic allergy to stings, hatred of wasps, criminal feeding of sugar and stealing from poor bees etc. All can be shot down (the questions, that is).
Personally, I avoid powerpoint and prefer to pass bits around and rattle on, but do ask one of the audience to tap a wrist when time is nearly up.
Take honey to sell.
